Dr. Emily ​Laminack​Wetzel

ABOUT

Dr. Emily Laminack Wetzel is an experienced performer and instructor on violin, viola, and piano. She grew up in Kennesaw, GA, in the middle of a large musical family. Her formal musical education started with piano lessons at age five and violin lessons at age eight. As a teenager she studied piano with Judith Dodd and violin with Dr. Edward Eanes, both employed at Kennesaw State University. She placed Outstanding Performer in Cobb County Music Teachers Association Spring Piano Auditions and performed violin in the prestigious Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Her Bachelor of Music degree was completed at Reinhardt University, where she majored in violin with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Assistant Principal Second Violin, Jay Christy, and minored in piano with Reinhardt University’s Artist in Residence, Dr. George Lucktenberg. She pursued her graduate degrees at the University of Georgia, earning her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees in violin with Dr. Michael Heald, while minoring in viola with Prof. Maggie Snyder. Dr. Wetzel has performed internationally in Germany, Austria, Italy, and China, participating in orchestras, opera orchestras, chamber concerts, and solo recitals. She recorded in Los Angeles for the film score to the documentary Limited Partnership, and she has performed in other recording projects around Atlanta for television, classical, pop, gospel, blues, rock, bluegrass, and more. Her local freelance orchestral work includes section violin and viola with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, the Augusta Symphony, the Georgia Symphony, the Macon Symphony, the Rome Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, the Sinfonia Gulf Coast, the Hollywood Concert Orchestra, and the Macon Pops Orchestra. She has a passion for chamber music, and she is currently the violinist for the Atlanta-based string trioLuna Strings. Dr. Wetzel began teaching private music lessons in 2003, and she currently runs a violin and viola studio in Roswell, GA and teaches at the Hawk Music Academy, the Lassiter String Academy, and Carere Music, Inc. While a student at the University of Georgia, she was employed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for music theory and aural skills, taught violin for the UGA Community Music School, served as the UGA Symphony’s head librarian, was a performer for the UGA Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and assisted with the UGA String Project. Dr. Wetzel taught as an Adjunct Instructor at Reinhardt University from 2012 to 2015, where she was the primary violin and viola instructor, the orchestra concertmaster and coach, an instructor of music appreciation, and a founding member of the Reinhardt Faculty String Quartet. Her past teaching experience also includes the Johnson Ferry Conservatory, the Murray Arts Academy, and the Atlanta Music Project. Dr. Wetzel’s students’ achievements include GMEA All-State Orchestras, District Honor Orchestras, the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the National Take a Stand Festival with Gustavo Dudamel. When not playing or teaching music, Dr. Wetzel can usually be found with a book. Her interests outside of music include fantasy, sci-fi, history, mythology, and the classics. Dr. Wetzel and her husband David reside in Roswell, GA.

Partners

Some of the excellent musical organizations that I perform and teach with:​